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An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
by Ambrose Bierce
damaging imagination
There is a literary lesson in the short story "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce that defines the key technique in manipulating an audience. This story is told through his imagination, where the main character Peyton personifies himself into becoming someone else, a man of honor. His view then contradicts that of the stories so it suggests that a lie is covering up his truth. By remembering his life through a shade of justice, he is able to accept his execution and rest in peace. By the end of this conversation with himself, Peyton's self image unravels his truth.
Bierce is clever in hiding the biggest piece until the end. By doing this he places the responsibility on the reader, and this is a very immature move. The strength we witness come from an ego, which gets deflated by a childish behavior, covered by attraction. When a character is developed strong enough to force the reader to follow their tracks, then they have become strong enough to tell their own story. That is what happened here. Bierce knew that the only way he’d be able to hold the attention of his audience and distract them away from the facts of perception was if he created someone else to do it for him.
This creates a relevant argument in comparing the author to the character. Peyton gets distracted by his own thoughts, and this drags the plot out in all kinds of unorganized directions, so you cannot predict where it is going. Bierce can then hides clues of reality in plain site, as to mirror the reality of life, and how we all perceive ourselves within it. He is using Peyton the way we use our own individual examples to cope and fit with our restricted realities. Perhaps he is saying that we all need tools to make it through the day, and if we cannot find the appropriate ones that answer our questions, then we have the ability to create them. This ability is otherwise considered a free will, which Peyton does not appear to have, so this then becomes the biggest clue of them all in covering up the direction of the piece. He does not possess the key technique that Bierce is using to describe him; it's the perfect disguise because we cannot see this. The story teaches us to listen to the voice within, because it must be coming from somewhere of substance. Peyton becomes to Bierce a navigational tool as Peyton’s imagination is to him, by the way he is able to create his own justice.
These moments of suspended reality are not dreams, because they don’t have the right kind of motivation behind them.
Dreams have the ability to wake people out of their daze and into a more productive reality, one where they feel they can use this knowledge to do something about their destiny. This motivation is his fear, of the coward he has become and the life he has wasted. His looming fate on its own would not have been enough to push him into escaping; he needed to have felt regret. Regret was the fear that starting the plan, and as he tries not to give up he uses this "adrenaline" to pull off greatness, a greatness he has never achieved before. Within his mind he has succeeded in a goal, and that in the end satisfies his need to pass on with honor. Take the ending slowly so you don’t miss the purpose.
In this affect Bierce is not only the writer but the creator, bridging the gap between his character and the character's lesson. Bierce uses Peyton as a tool to navigate reality, so by twisting the story to tell it in this way, he is using his tool to benefit himself, as he is trying to tell us to do.
Title: An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
Author: Ambrose Bierce
Review written by: Kristyna Serdock
Reviewer's Rating:9.5
Reader's Rating: 3.00
Reader's Votes: 3
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